Chapter Text
Ethari had had an emotional rollercoaster of a past few weeks. First he thought his husband was dead and that Rayla had abandoned everyone. Then he found out that Rayla had not, in fact, deserted the group but rather found the dragon prince egg and was travelling with a human to deliver the egg. And then there was the whole: Your husband isn't actually dead, just STUCK IN A FRICKIN COIN.
What exactly was he supposed to do about that?!?!
Did they tell him how to get Runaan out of the cursed piece of metal? No. Did they tell him someone who could help him get his husband out of the coin? No!
What had they excepted from him when they handed him his husband incased in a small golden coin?
"Ethari?" A voice asked from behind him. Lifting his head with a sigh, he saw Rayla and her friend Callum standing in the doorway.
"What can I help you with, Rayla?" Ethari wondered, putting on a fake smile.
"Nothing," she answered, walking closer to him. "I just wanted to see if you'd made any progress."
Ethari sighed again, looking down at the map he'd laid out in front of him. For the past hour, he'd been trying to narrow down places where he might find someone to help him get his husband out of a coin. Last week, he'd figured that he'd need a source of dark magic, considering it was dark magic that had put Runaan in his current prison in the first place. However, the problem was that he'd need a human in order to use dark magic, and even with Ezran on the throne of Katolis, it wouldn't be easy for him to do so.
"Don't worry about me, Rayla," Ethari told her, still fake smiling. "Go have fun with your friend."
Reluctantly, Rayla left his workshop, Callum following closely behind. Ethari dropped his head against the table.
"What am I going to do?"
Rayla sat down at the edge of the pool, placing her head in her hands in frustration. She wasn't stupid. She could tell Ethari wasn't doing okay, and she wanted to help fix that, but she couldn't.
"I wish there was something we could do to help him," Callum said as he sat down next to her.
"Me too," Rayla nodded, "but Ethari said he needs dark magic, and we don't have access to that here."
"I could..."
Rayla cut him off before he could continue. "No, absolutely not, Callum. You're not using dark magic."
"But..."
"No."
They then sat in silence for a while, just staring at the pool before them. Rayla stared at Runaan's flower, just below the surface of the water. If only there were someway I could help.
"I've got it!" Callum shouted, standing up suddenly and causing Rayla to jump.
"What is it?" Rayla asked, fully preparing herself for a stupid suggestion.
"We've been so focused on bringing Ethari to the dark magic," he started enthusiastically, "but what if what we really need to do is bring the dark magic to Ethari!"
Huh. It actually wasn't the worst idea Callum had ever had.
"So what you're saying is we go get someone who can do dark magic and then bring them here to Ethari?" Rayla asked.
"Yeah!" Callum smiled, looking proud of himself. "I mean, worse case scenario is that they turn on us and kill us."
"Or that Ethari doesn't let us go because he thinks your idea is stupid."
"Then we won't tell him," Callum suggested.
"This is a terrible idea," Rayla sighed, standing in front of Callum and crossing her arms over her chest.
"Maybe," Callum agreed with a grin. "But think of how happy Ethari will be when we succeed! He'll have Runaan back!"
He did have a point. Curse him.
"Fine," Rayla sighed. At this point, she felt obliged to help Runaan after letting him down that night they stormed Katolis, even if helping meant going with one of Callum's crazy plans that could possibly get them killed. "Let's do it."